Police fail to find anything in 44 year old cold case in Tokoroa.

[Suezy]

Police fail to find anything in cold case dig
ADEN MILES Last updated 15:41 07/03/2012

KARL DRURY
Police at the Tokoroa property where they are searching for clues to help solve a 44-year-old cold case. Laura Westbrook reporting.

PETER DRURY/Waikato Times ON SITE: Jo Reynolds, Jefferie Hill's mum, was at the dig today. PETER DRURY/Waikato Times HELPING HAND: Jefferie Hill's sister Laura was there to support her mum. MISSING: Jefferie Hill disappeared 44 years ago.
Police have failed to find anything after digging up a Tokoroa garden in relation to a 44-year-old cold case.

Police began excavating the property today after a geophysics scientist detected an anomaly when scanning the area last month.

Geophysical Services's Martin King was asked by the Fairfax Media-owned South Waikato News newspaper to scan the property across the street from where two-year-old Jefferie Hill went missing in 1968.

But Detective Sergeant Kevan Verry says nothing of interest was found.

"Today's operation has involved excavating an area approximately 1.5 square metres and to a depth of approximately 75 centimetres,” he said.

"This work has not uncovered any item of interest and police will shortly leave the property."

Verry said such cases were never closed and the child was still listed as a missing person.

"We are always open to receiving new information that may shed new light on a case and police will always investigate new information - as we did today," he said.

"In this case, we have been supportive of the private efforts to search for  Jefferie in and around the creek and have met with the family and others involved over the past six months to discuss the case."

King had searched an 18-square metre area of the property, which was identified by former resident, Ray Bartlett, who said he saw his then neighbour digging there soon after Jefferie went missing. The property has since changed hands.

King said that what he was looking at, when scanning the property, did not fit in with what the rest of the ground looked like and that it "looked odd".

''What makes me suspicious with this [discovery] is the type of reflection that would indicate a possible void. A void can be created by the type of soil in the ground, however this looks different because its shallower and it needs further investigation by excavation.''

Jefferie's sister Laura Hill, 42, who was on site supporting mum, Jo Reynolds, this morning, said it would be nice for the family to have some closure but she was not expecting anything to be turned up.

She did not think her brother was at the property or in the area of Matarawa Creek, behind the Tokoroa YMCA, where the coroner had ruled Jefferie had drowned despite no body being found.

Detective Sergeant Kevan Verry said police cases like this one were never closed and Jefferie was still listed as a missing person.

"We are always open to receiving new information that may shed new light on a case and police will always investigate new information - as we are doing in this instance.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/6535618/Police-fail-to-find-anything-in-cold-case-dig

• Tweet

[ato2]

I wonder what the weather was like the day the child went missing?

[Suezy]

They don't mention that.  Will look in my books and if it says will advise.

[TokWW]

Thanks Suezy, I was out and missed the news tonight.

[iomkiwi]

I saw this mentioned somewhere a week or so back - from memory the creek wasn't running any higher than normal and so always questions about why no body was found, as it doesn't run fast enough to carry a body away.

[TokWW]

True, but in stormy weather, it can be 5ft deep and fast moving, 12 ft wide, definitely fast enough to carry an adult away as it did me crossing it in a thunderstorm as part of a Hash House Harrier run... LOL!